What do I file for the year I move back to Canada?
A part-year return running from the date residency restarts, with the arrival-day position on your foreign holdings recorded in it. Those holdings are treated as acquired at that day's value, so the return is where the new cost bases are fixed and the evidence behind them is put on the file. If a departure position was taken when you originally left, the arrival return has to sit consistently with it, which is why the old filing is pulled before the new one is drafted.
Can I undo the departure tax I paid when I left Canada?
Sometimes, on property you still hold. A departure-tax position taken on the way out can in some circumstances be unwound when you resume residency, which turns on what the property is and on whether it was ever actually disposed of. It is not automatic, and it is not a claim you make on the arrival return. It runs back to the departure year, so the original filing and its schedules are the starting documents. Where it works, the result is a corrected departure position rather than an adjustment to the year you came back.
What evidence do I need for my assets' value on arrival?
Whatever fixes the value on the day residency restarts. For quoted holdings, dated market records. For property, a valuation built on information from that date rather than a later estimate. For an interest in a private business, the financial information that existed then. The reset is genuinely valuable, since it can put a decade of growth abroad outside the Canadian gain, but it is only as good as the evidence behind it, and evidence gets harder to obtain every year a sale is deferred.
What happens to a foreign pension when I move back to Canada?
The position on a foreign plan wants settling before the move rather than after, because some of the choices available beforehand are not available once residency has restarted. The arrival return then reports the plan consistently with the position taken, instead of the position being invented to fit a return already filed. What the filing needs is the plan documents, the history of contributions and the reasoning for the treatment adopted, kept together so the same answer can be given in later years without re-arguing it.
Do I have to file for the years I was non-resident?
That depends on what was filed and what was earned while you were away, not on the fact that you are back. Residency restarts on arrival; it does not reach backwards. But the arrival return is built on the positions taken during the years abroad, so if the departure was never reported, or the intervening years are incomplete, that gap gets closed before the new filing is drafted. Filing the return for the year you came back on top of an unsettled history is how the two ends up contradicting each other.
Do I need my old departure return to file my first return back?
Yes, in practice. The cost bases you carry into Canada, the property that was caught by the deemed disposition, the property that kept its Canadian tax hooks and any deferred amount still outstanding all come from that filing. Drafting the arrival return without it means guessing at figures that already exist on paper. Where the old return cannot be found, reconstructing the position from the revenue authority's own records comes first, because the arrival return has to agree with what was filed then.
Do I have to file in both countries?
Frequently yes, and the two filings do different jobs. The country where the income arises taxes it at source; the country where you are resident taxes your worldwide income and then gives credit for the tax already paid. Filing only one side is what leaves relief unclaimed — the credit has to be asked for on a return. We prepare both sides so the numbers agree. See dual filing.
I have not filed for several years while living abroad — what are my options?
Both countries have routes back, and using one before they contact you is what preserves the relief. On the US side there are procedures aimed at taxpayers whose failure was not wilful, including one designed for people living outside the country, and separate procedures for late account reports and information returns alone. Canada has its voluntary disclosures programme and taxpayer relief for penalties and interest. Filing quietly and hoping is the one approach with no protection attached to it. See catch-up filing.
